Gimme and "S"...YAY, Stress!

I had a craptastic weekend.

It started on Friday with a call from my mom. There was an incident at the daycare. This is a very long story that I still haven't gotten to the bottom of yet. No one was hurt, but the story isn't very clear, and I was not personally notified, nor was my X.

So, I wandered home and I found Smooshy in my mailbox, and well, yarn always makes me feel a tiny bit better. Yellow, blue, and purple colors. Beautiful.

I'll tell you, I am completely a Noob at this whole "luxury" sock yarn thing, but I can't tell the difference between the mediumweight STR and the lightweight. Of course I don't have any lightweight. So I ordered some. I agree that the mediumweight is thicker than Koigu, but it appears to be of similar weight to Shibui. It's soft.

I went to Fontana Sushi in Littleton and Abe's Cafe in downtown Littleton on Friday. I had cheesecake. It was nice. I'm good at the description, huh? They had these cute little miniture snapdragons out front and the gentleman working called me "Carolyn" with his accent. I was amused.

The next day I received my order from Fearless Fibers. I've been impressed with what people have knitted with this yarn as it supposedly doesn't pool. Also, it's the 7 deadly spins sock yarn club, at least I think so. Either way, I like the colors, the prices are good, and the shipping is quick.

I met up with a friend on Saturday night and we went to Vines in Parker. I highly recommend this place. It's a tapas bar. I had some sort of filet migion wrapped in pastry and brie. Drool. It was good. I also had the bruschetta, I have to admit I like mine with chunked mozzerella, this one wasn't too bad. More of a cream cheese with tomatos and balsamic on top. The wines they serve in glasses, bottles or basically half bottles. They also have "flights" where you can try 3 types of wine. I thought that was kind of clever. The prices are from $3 - $15 for the tapas. They have a patio or a dining area. I'd post a picture except my phone won't allow me to email pictures to myself anymore. Another lesson learned, take the camera stupid.

That night too, my friend and I talked about the supernatural. So, let me start with this. My experience with people, in general, is that often I find myself talking about stuff with people, and I find that people seem to tell me all sorts of things without any sort of filters, for whatever reason. Also, I get creeped out very very easily. My X always found this mildly amusing and would like to scare me just to see my reaction. I hated this. Lastly, I do think that there are things that cannot be explained. So, here it is about 10:30 pm or so, and she's relating her story to me. I told her, that I'd be more happy to talk with her about it, but it needed to be during the day, this was after about 30 minutes of conversation. She said she understood, but how conversation often goes, she kept going. I then sort of shuffled her out of my place then. Blah, blah, blah, tired, etc, etc.

Well, the next day, I had had my phone on silent because I had been up until 5:30 am watching Star Trek, partially due to stress, partially due to a little creeped out. When I finally check the phone around 11 am, here is this voicemail... "I think you were rude, my feelings were hurt, I was trying to tell you a story, etc etc." Then an hour later, another voicemail... "I'm sorry, I know your under a lot of stress, just forget my prior voicemail."

sigh

I have drama. I'm so normal it's painful I think. Maybe it's because I don't know what I think.

Sunday I went to Michaels to find a cross stitch frame holder. I found one, and I like it, I think it will work with my frame, but...I also picked up a 50% coupon for next week. Rats. I think I'm going to get another one using that coupon. Why, oh why, do I find out about sales when I'm AT the store.

Anyway, my long winded weekend came down to this. Did you know that stress causes you to knit tighter, which causes your gauge to be thrown all to pieces? I know, redundant. :) Sarcasm is my friend. So, my sock, my loved little sock, the first one came out so perfect. The second one came out at least an inch shorter. The YO look way smaller. I almost frogged them both. Dang. I've decided just to finish them up. Chalk it up to a learning experience, otherwise I will be knitting these same socks forever.

I don't think I'm a great knitter. I don't even think of myself to be an expert. I do find people asking me questions. I know quite a bit about knitting and I haven't ever knit anything yet, that I wasn't able to interpret, eventually. One knitter I met not too long ago told me I must just be good. Knitting, it just makes sense to me, now if only the rest of the world did.

Lessons learned from the Noro sock.

1. Stress effects gauge.
2. Try counting rows.
3. Try knitting both at the same time on 2 different needle sets.
4. Don't be afraid to pull enough out so the socks can kind of match, if that's what you want.
5. If making your own pattern...WRITE IT DOWN...more is better than less...

In need of advice, or maybe just encouragement

Let's first talk about dp ladders from hell. They look SO big to me. Poo.

Ladders happen with dp right? They just do. No matter how hard you tug at the yarn between the switch, they just happen. Do they ever correct themselves? I've never really asked anyone I've knitted socks for. Besides the people I have knitted socks for are not knitters, and most certainly they would look at me as though I had lost my mind talking about the ladder in the garage.

Second, how important is it to count rows? I know that tension and gauge can often vary slightly from day to day, and mood to mood. I've always just measured. I'm sure my inner perfectionist is just having a hay day with my brain. Poking at the little worrier child in my head.

I'm using this cast on for my toe. I like it. It's less likely to need tightening. Although the first stitch seems to always be loose. On the first sock I just tightened it and left the little loop it left, the second sock I tightened and then knit it with another knit stitch. This I think may have left a tiny hole, so I may have to rethink my thoughts about that loose first stitch. I may just try the Knitty version of the figure 8 again. It's been so long I really don't remember.

On a side note...I'm so ready for it to be Friday.

It's always seems like I get home at night and all I want to do is sit down, read some blogs, and go to bed. It's not that I forget to take the pictures, I just seem to run out of time.

Today I had a first. I took back sock yarn to an LYS. I'd link you to their website but String, A Knitting Boutique seems to have had it deleted. I don't know what is going on there, but it remains at my least favorite. I'm grateful that they took back the 2 skeins I had. One was a Fortissma, and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't convince myself that the cotton/wool/nylon blend was going to work with the wool/poly blend of the Opal skein I have to go with it. So I ordered a solid Opal skein instead, and opted to take this one back. I also took back a skein of Noro, not because I didn't like it, but I had 2 of them. I decided I only needed one. Instead for their store credit, I picked up Jitterbug and Koigu. A much better idea in my stash.

I'm still not crazy about this store. I went up to the counter and let the person at the register know I wanted to do a return, she informed me of the store credit thing. I said that was fine and I just thought I'd pick out my new selections now. She nosed through my bag and picked out the solid color Fortissma and said, "Are you sure you bought this here?" I replied, "Yes, here's my receipt." sigh. For that reason alone I don't think I'd really want to be a shop keeper. Maybe I'm a crappy customer having the expectation that you ought to have a basic idea of what is in your store.

I also went to Knitty Cat. Ann has Flat Feet in bright colors. She says she's going to order more. Yay, because the stuff she had, I don't think will last through the weekend. I hope she gets in some of the Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn too when it comes out. She said she'd ask her rep. I went for Flat Feet and a Jitterbug followed me home.

The Jitterbug has so many colors in it. It's like a crayon box that tastifully threw up.

I also came to the conclusion today that I need to have yarn at my desk...on my desk as a display. For some reason it kind of just makes me feel good.

A little bit of Monday, a little bit of Tuesday

It never fails me. "Cycle" at work comes around, and I can't sleep at night. I hate that. So, the time when I need to be most awake comes at the time when I'm the most exhausted because I can't sleep. Goody. I also start falling behind in every other aspect of my life, blogging, bills, eating, etc. I've done this for 5 years. Oh, how I need a change.

I finished my first sock. Yay. Noro is nice. It can be rough on your hands. My skein had 2 knots, hopefully no more. The colorway looks great on the skein, but can be troublesome because of the knots. It has slubs and sticks. However, it keeps my foot warm. It feels soft to me. I didn't have any problems with breakage, although I have heard others who have had issues with that. I'll be interested in seeing how it handles washing.

Have I ever mentioned I hate feet? I think they're sort of odd looking. I don't paint my toenails and I don't like pedicures. I do like to knit socks.

My second sock has begun, and well, I've miscalculated the colorway. Poo. I thought about frogging and pulling until it matched closer...but...nah...forget it. It's my first set of my socks. I'm sure it will be fine. Yes. Fine. No frogging.

This of course is not the second sock. I haven't had the time to take a picture of the second sock, or post pictures of flowers from mother's day.

This is a picture of my "design," the one that made me slightly batshit insane. It's cute though.
Needless to say, I did nothing last night. I fed the kids, read, and went to bed. My cloud of fogginess is better today and my shoulder doesn't seem to ache, which I am sure is a direct result of work and not from knitting too much. *cough*

I ordered some Smooshy. Seems interesting enough, stupid sock yarn habit. The worst thing about this habit...is when I send my order to my PO box instead of my home address. Duh. Now I have to wait until Friday instead of stalking my mailbox.

I need to figure out how to wear my socks. This I can sense is going to involve a new pair of shoes. I'll have to ponder this. I don't like women's shoes much. I always like to tell the men I've dated, "Slow down. Next time you get to wear the heels." I normally wear some type of boot, heeled usually, looks sort of professional with my slacks. However, this does not bode well for socks. I think my Teva's will work well, but I can't wear those to work or in the winter. I did see some Mary Janes that seem sort of cute, heeled, and in an elderly sort of fashion. No offense to anyone, really, but I remember my father's aunt wearing those shoes. So, it's hard for me not to imagine a 90 year old German woman in association with those shoes, but I still like em. One day I'll even have a link so you can see.

Randomize

Geesh, I almost forgot. Look at the time.

I pondered it for awhile. I've read on other blogs people have just happened to mention that the first commentor never seems to be picked when people use randomizer.org.

So, I decided with my contestants that the old fashioned way was going to work okay for me. I penned up everyone's name, shuffled them up and tossed them in the air.



The winner of my first blogiversary is...

See you on the 30th?



Oh, mighty sock gods of frusteration...this looks okay right? After finally puzzling out the maddening zig zag...the end is now upon me...

A picot seemed the most perfect thing in the world. I knit, I picot, I knit and bind off, I cut...and try it on.

Oh crap.

The bind off is so tight it cuts off my circulation. I try and try to ponder how slouch socks will be okay.

Riight.

I frog. I start again. K1, P1. I made it 14 rows, I think, and now I'm going to sew it up, once I locate the nifty K1, P1, bind off in my books. Only one more sock to do cries.

Going, going...

Last chance. Happy blogiversary to me.

My order of Socks that Rock arrived. Mediumweight. Korppi, Haida, Rauen, and Stormy Weather.

grin

I like it. Sqooshy and soft. Not as thick as I expected. I think I'm going to be fine. I'm knitting my Noro sock on a size 3 needle. I think I'm going to be just fine. After all, I've knit worsted weight acrylic socks before. *ducks*

Progress on my sock.

I've learned a few things.

1) It's not the wisest thing to knit a sock at 3:00 am, you will make mistakes.
2) Frogging sucks.
3) It may be wise to wind the skein into a ball first before knitting, that way you can find the knots first (2 knots in this skein, can you believe it, let me tell you how pleased I was)

This is why the sky blue is kind of long I couldn't really determine, at 3 am, how long the colorways were, so I guessed.

Yeah, well...looky! I made a pattern. It is my special friend and I shall call it George. George is also the reason why I had to frog 6 rows...my zig didn't zag and instead made a line, and well my Borg perfection just could not have that. The second sock should look interesting.

No title is a good title

I've been pondering some about blogs lately. I've never really found myself to be all that interesting. I'm sort of full of self induced complaints, know-it-all advice, lousy grammar, and noncontinuous thoughts. I used to think that I was better at putting thoughts into words instead of words into thought, but I'm not finding that to be true. I'm finding that I simply am a random brained person who makes up words to describe their perception of the world. I think too, I don't have as much to complain about anymore. It's this sort of just acceptance of any given situation, and knowing when situations are simply out of your control. This doesn't mean it is any easier not to give my advice. I like running things.

Maybe that's why I enjoy knitting. I'm in control of how my product turns out. At least, most of the time. Like my sock for instance. I'm kind of following a pattern, but I'm improvising some. I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm enjoying my kfb instead of M1, although I wonder if they will be too tight.

I also like seeing progress. This is why knitting is so great for me. This too explains why I'm so frustrated with my job, but that is not a story for today.

The great part about knitting too, is realizing when you almost have the heel flap completely done, that you've knit it off to the side somehow, just slightly. Enough that you know there is no good quick fix, frogging is the only answer. Since I didn't figure this out until 10:30 pm last night I don't have a picture, because really, when I find my mistakes I usually don't go looking for my camera right away, because that would impede on my progress of correcting the error. So, all I have is this picture of the sock I'm working on. My happy twiney sock.

The thing that is bugging me the most today, is that fact that I cannot figure out how to tell someone that I think that they are a worthless ass, in a nice sort of PC way. We've had this discussion before, him and I, many, many times before. He just doesn't seem to get it though. So, I'm left with accepting the situation. I just hate sucky situations. I hate it when people don't understand what the right thing to do is. Even if it sucks for them too. Somehow it will puzzle itself through. This however is complicated in situations of divorce. Things become mine and not ours and responsibility is only okay when it doesn't involve money.

sigh

Somedays I wish I could just do more.

Did I ever mention I'm vague too? 3 more hours until work is over and I can go knit more. I'm reading Yarn Harlot's book, I think the first one, it has a little distressed looking sheep on the cover. Her humor and observations are delightful. I especially can relate the parts about children. Mine told me that for Mother's Day they will allow me to sleep in, even though they will be hungry. My daughter also informed me that she was going to just let me stay in bed if I wanted to all day, but no knitting.

Lol, what? What kind of relaxing day is it when one can't knit to relax?

Alpaca's squeak

Contest...I still don't have my "prize." I don't know if I am being impatient or if they are sort of slow. I emailed yesterday.

Update: I'm kind of slow. I finally puzzled out the confirmation number out of 3 on the receipt, and wha-la...progress of transaction. They mailed it the day after I ordered it. So, busy weekend, I checked today at lunch and poof there it was. See what happens when I don't stalk my mailbox? So, this is the prize. Lovely, periwinkle.

So lovely, that I had to acquire a set for myself as well as the orchid colorway. Yipee. Maybe I should start counting sock yarn as stash?

All I know is this, after I finished organizing my stash, I ended up having more room in my stash boxes. So that means I need to fill those spaces right?

I think there was a time when I thought that it would be cool to have a few sheep or alpaca or other fleece producing animals. However, this has sort of changed. I'm sort of afraid of animals really, unless they are cats or fish. Dogs, I tolerate. Sheep, while cute, especially when made into a stuffed animal, are a little odd looking to me and a friend told me, full of ticks. Alpaca's...well they make this really weird screaming noise that kind of freaks me out a little.

Am I a bad knitter/spinner? I would like my fleece processed and colored and ready to go, as though it was never on the animal. Just like my chicken comes in cellophane, all clean and plucked...so should wool.

Speaking of wool. The Alpaca thing, I made it, on Sunday no less, but Saturday I had an ass ton of things to get done (help build a fence, pick child up from other parent's house, take child to birthday party, take child back to other parent's house, go home need shower from fence building, go to meet D, go to bar and listen to bands.) So, Sunday, I set my alarm, and I made it there right at 10 am. I didn't remember my camera. It is my talent to always forget 1 thing, on Sunday, it was the camera.

It's a little show. There were a few vendors. The vendors downstairs had a handful of fleece, all alpaca, all 100% worsted weight alpaca, seemingly handspun, some small skeins of milled. I wandered upstairs to the "fiber arts" area. I expected crafts however, to my glee, I found more vendors. The first one I run into, selling plain roving, and colored roving to needlefelt. Rats. I didn't want to purchase just plain ol' roving. What's the fun in that unless you're going to dye it. Sure, I guess the practice is good. The next one was the same as well, and then there were a few people to my delight, spinning. Roving, yay.

I found this at the Eye Dazzler Alpacas. It's ready to go and it mixed with silk. I bought 2, they were only 1 oz. sizes. They had red, yellow, purple, and a brown/black. The purple and the yellow were great, but I took home the purple. They teach classes at this farm, which is approximately 2 hours from Lone Tree, CO. They offer natural dye classes as well as acid dye classes, but not until next fall or spring, which is okay. All sorts of exciting. I'm hoping that perhaps I can take a class or set something up perhaps. They were very friendly and at this booth I learned how to spin and ply at the same time from a drop spindle.

This selection I found at the next place. I picked up some alpaca roving as well as merino. They had silk hankies which were beautiful, but I just didn't think I wanted to bother with them at this point. I also found this sport weight red/black yarn, socks of course, it's not superwash, but it's a really great color. Does anyone know, if you knit socks out of yarns that are not superwash can you still wash them in a cold water wash in the washing machine. I don't mind hand washing socks. Just curious. I keep pondering the socks I think I want to make for D, although I think he'd like slippers better, and I keep thinking that superwash is a good thing.

Speaking of socks...I'm making socks. Out of real sock yarn (yes, I make socks out of worsted weight acrylic). It's Noro sock yarn. I figured since I haven't really used super squooshy sock yarn to knit with yet and only the scratchy sort of Fortissma sock yarn, that Noro would be a good start. Besides I had 2 of this colorway in my stash, how did that happen? The reviews that I have heard from fellow sock knitters is, it's like knitting with twine. Hmm. Sounds great. I'm actually liking my twine though. I like Noro so much anyway. I'm enjoying the weird slubs and picking out my little bits of vegetation. Odd little knitter I am.

I only frogged the toe 2 times before I decided that the toe up K1, M1 was leaving a sort of little hole by the toe increase that I didn't care for. I only frogged once more after that realizing that I should at least sort of use a pattern in order to knit this in a sock that might fit me. D pointed out that my children have smaller feet than me and if the sock is too small I can just give it to them, practice practice.

Practice? What? It's not going to be perfect on the first try? I can't have that. My sense of Borg perfection cannot assimilate. Okay, so I didn't frog it a 4th time. It's going well so far, except for work and life getting in the way of my knitting time. I think it needs a pattern in it, however I want to practice the gusset heel instead of the short row heel. The short row heel is why I don't like to knit toe up, but the toe up concept makes me keep wanting to try.

Mornings

My mom always told me I'd become a morning person when I grew up. Either she was 1) wrong, or 2) I haven't grown up yet.

I'm still sick. I hate being sick. I'm waiting for the sore throat and achy body to drop into my lungs. I'm not looking forward to this prospect.

I fixed my daughter's sock yesterday. The one with the stitch that never got knitted. I'm still not sure how I did this.

I'm convinced now I'm not sure if I know how to weave in ends of if I've been making it up all along. The first fix was terrible and I had to take it out. It looked like something gone wrong with embroidery.

This is a sock she has outgrown. My crappy fix will do, I will not frog the sock.

Can you see it?

How about now?

It's right above my finger. Oh, and in the sunlight theres a pretty little ladder too.

My sock perfection is far from...perfect. Sigh.

Well...well...someone also put the pattern on this yarn off about a foot. So there. Ha!

I'm still not convinced I like the look of short row heels. They just look sort of holey. I like the idea of toe ups, but not this heel, I want to try a skein of Noro with a gusset heel and see if I like that better.

Yesterday I received my order from Hazel Knits. This got here so quick. Wow.

I made the order with the intention of the dark pink that I just noticed listed. However, the light pink, light and dark green, blue and purple wanted to come along for the journey, so I had to order them too.

This yarn seems so soft and squishy and I love the semi solid shading effect of this yarn.

I finally picked up a green/black colorway. This one was from Kindred Spirits Yarn. It was just what I was looking for. Not too much green, not too much black, although more black would have been okay.

Now if you asked me why I was looking for this colorway, I can't tell you. I just think it's pretty.

Seeking socks

I have been bitten by the sock yarn bug, badly. I'm looking for sock yarn, any color, mostly superwash wool, and wool/nylon mixes. I want to make a mitered blanket, and while I know that making a blanket, out of fingering weight yarn, may drive me 1) nuts, 2) until I die, it still seems like a good idea to me.

With that said, if you happen to stumble upon this blog and you are destashing. I'm considering paying some for left over sock yarn, or sock yarn that is just taking up room in your stash. Leave a comment we'll chat.

Socks! Done!

They only took about 4 years of asking. But my family member will finally get them. So now I won't have to hear it anymore. Do I look like I can just pop these things out in little plastic packages like at Wal-Mart? But I would like to say that those of the population who are not knitters some times do not understand the amount of time that it can take to knit items. This in fact is proven to me by my young daughter all the time. :)

Will it ever end...never mind got distracted...

I was going to write another blog about more snow, but I forgot to take a picture. That's okay, there's more in the forecast next week. In the mean time, enjoy these snowmen. I'm sure I'll have more pictures during next week's snowstorm.

There isn't much to say about knitting or yarn right now. I started making a pair of socks, hypothetically for my cousin's husband. Who's been asking for the last two years. Really, I just don't knit that fast, and well...I get side tracked easily.

For instance, I found this tonight at JoAnn's which will be turned into some sort of blanket like thing for a friend who's having a baby. I know four women having babies so far. All about the same time too. Only two will actually get blankets hopefully out of me. I'm not sure what color I want to make the other one out of. I may wait to see if they find out what the gender is first.


This here will make a perhaps nifty pair of socks. I like the colorway. Cherry chocolate. Cheap yarn will be the end of me. I can't wait until the Estes Park Wool Festival.

A hat here for my son. The one I bought is too small. So I thought I'd make one. Wool and soy. Now I just need a hat pattern.

A scarf for my daughter. How I love self striping yarns. She kind of liked it. It'll still looked nifty. After the scarf Imbrium made I'm sure it'll look nifty either way.

A bundle of wool from my friend for Christmas. I have no idea what I want to do with this yet. 100% wool. I'm sure I could think of something to felt it into.

I still have the blanket for my sister to finish and I've started spinning some roving that I bought 3 years ago or so that my daughter picked out.

I will need to acquire some of the lace yarn from Yarn Place that Imbrium acquired. So much yarn...running out of room...must buy another box although I really ought to use some of the stuff.

Quick!

Currently on my spindle. Slowly but surely. It's quite different just spinning wool and not a wool silk blend.

And the never ending ball of yarn has come to an end. I just need to bind them off and they'll be done! Yay! I had so much yarn, I had enough to make something for the boy.

I've been so distracted lately. After I finished the socks I couldn't figure out what to do next. I still don't know. I think I may try and finish the blanket I started awhile ago. We'll see.

quick updates

Another finished pair of socks...smaller than the first pair...so now Grandma and granddaughter have matching pair.

Ready to be felted...it's a bag of some sort.

Socks!

Yay! I finshed the socks.

I've also finished plying the never ending ball of yarn. But I don't have a picture yet.

Well then

Busy weekend.

Friday I hung out with friends. They are starting a new game of Spelljammer. I spent the evening knitting...

...I'm hoping that it will be a felted purse for my daughter. So we'll see...my first venture into felting. I also spent the few hours trying to convince the GM that I should be allowed to play a mind flayer. I would open up the conversation, "So...what's your feeling on Illithids?" Followed by all of my dear friends in unison saying "No!" to which my reply was "Well what about an eye tyrant?" I still find some amusement in play a completely difficult character. I don't know how well I'd do it though. I've noticed that many gamers who play table top and LARPs to a certain degree tend to play similar characters. At least I do...in all 5 games I've played in over the last 10 years. I'm still not convinced that gaming is my thing. I like watching, I like to listen...I even was the mast in a 7th sea game...which was me coming over with my then...well...guy I was dating and watching him and the rest of our friends play this game. So one day I was there and they were playing...I was knitting, and someone said "Run up the pirate flag" to which I held up my knitting needle and the piece of scarf I was knitting, and thus became the mast. At least I am amused. I think I get to be the ship's nav computer next time...since they are going to start a space adventure next. That game was the first game I ever saw, in my 10 years, come to a close.

On Saturday...I went to lovely Estes Park with Imbrium and her boyfriend who was gracious enough to drive to the Fiber Festival.

What I learned from going there...

1) Llamas are cute but creepy. They stare. I like their fur.

2) I should never ever shop with Imbrium. We are such a bad influence on each other..."No, no...now really where are you going to find something like that except for here?" Yes...I'm sure we'll be shopping together again.

3) Always, always...it's a small world...since I ran into my co-worker up there. Which didn't surprise me since she does love knitting.

4) I am an impulse buyer. I found this beautiful spindle I held it for awhile and then I put it back worried that I would miss something else and wanted to check out everything first. And of course it was gone by the time I got back. SIGH I emailed the designer today...perhaps I will get one yet...lesson learned? Listen to Imbrium next time...see #2. :)

So...we then went to dinner with Bakerina and Snow who invited us to their cabins with many other knit bloggers (and if I missed anyone please forgive me). It was wonderful meeting all of you. I hope to read your blogs in the future. :) Bakerina made a wonderful shepherds pie and strawberry and peach pies for dessert. Yum!

Whilst I was there I worked on my heel flap and turning my heel on my sock project. I also learned how to knit socks on circular needles. I'll have to try that one of these days. I'm a visual learner. I can remember...usually what people show me...

I bought the following at the fiber festival...

Spindle and roving...oh and the best part of that was I learned how to draft out the roving in a new way. Much faster, much thinner...beautiful!

Cashmere for a lace scarf...

Lace weight yarn, for something lacy (also Imbrium's doing because of her fantastic work on her lace work)...

And something for my daughter...it'll be something lacy.

And a little something for the kids. I think I should have gotten two. Girl child calls it her "pet"...its been strategically in her bedroom...I think to make sure her little brother doesn't notice it...

And last but not least...an ornament for the Christmas tree. I need to glue a ribbon to it. Once I get my glue gun...out of the storage unit.

To crochet or not to...that is the question...

But let's talk socks first. This is how far I got yesterday before I got the overwhelming car sick feeling. That was fun. Started on the heel flap. Yay!

I was going to start on a blanket for my son with the black and blue yarn, but I got side tracked with a baby shower I have been invited to in two weeks. It was going to be pink and white, but Wal-Mart only had 2 skeins. I buy cheap yarn...don't hate me. So now it's purple and white. I figure when it's about 10 times this size I'll call it done.

It took me so long to figure out if I wanted to crochet or knit this. I decided on crochet because I think I crochet faster and I didn't have a circular pair of needles and the LYS weren't open. I do have to admit that I hate to crochet with bumpy yarn though because I lose stitches. See...if I had had this blog two years ago I would have remembered this.

Ah well. Wish me luck.